For Engineers except Army Postal Service, Telegraph and
Railway Reserve of the Engineers and Submarine Miners Reserve of
the Engineers:

"Seven years active and five years reserve, or three
years active and nine years reserve at the option of the
recruit; but in proportions settled by the War Office,
with the [obligation of an additional year in active
service if the soldier has been in garrison abroad (and
eight years in the reserve)]. Drivers of the Engineers
are enlisted for only three years active and nine years
reserve."

For Army Postal Service, Telegraph and Railway Reserve of
the Engineers:

"Three years active and three years reserve. These
recruits may be transferred to the reserve immediately
after enlistment, or may be discharged, if there is no
employment for them in the postal service, or with any
railway company."

For Submarine Miners Reserve of the Engineers:

"Three years active and three years reserve. These
recruits are transferred to the reserve immediately after
enlistment."

"The last two categories of recruits have to serve with
the volunteers and are trained by them.

Recruits wishing to join the engineers . . . must be able to
read and write, and for the corps of engineers they must have
learnt some trade useful in the service."

* GRIERSON, J.M. Scarlet Into Khaki:
The British Army on the Eve of the Boer War. Greenhill Books,
London, 1988, p. 21-22.